'Headliner' pokes fun at Hong Kong's leaders. And they are not amused From 1843mag
elcome to Cowardly Police News!” booms Zung Jung-ngai. Dressed in a crisp white shirt, black tie and bin bags that cover his neck and hands, Zung beams at his audience of prospective recruits to the Hong Kong Police Force. Want a job that guarantees good health? Where you can get “protective biohazard suits’’ quicker than front-line medics fighting coronavirus? Where you can obtain-15s, water cannons and gas masks? Zung looks into the camera: all you need to do, he says, is join the police.
Ng Chi-sam, another of the show’s stars, recalls one of his favourite jokes from an episode aired in 1989. “Why did China use real bullets instead of rubber bullets against the students at Tiananmen Square?” the host asked. “It’s because they used up all the rubber for that rubber-stamp parliament of theirs!” his co-host replied. Such ridicule of the rulers would immediately be quashed on the mainland. Even Hong Kong’s elite has not always enjoyed the attention.
Although “Headliner” is broadcast in Cantonese, it often incorporates gags in English and Mandarin, reflecting the territory’s trilingual heritage. The show’s writers remember watching it during the twilight of colonial rule. “Britain was on the way out, China hadn’t arrived yet, and so there was no such thing as political correctness. You could say whatever you wanted,” says Tsang.
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